The doesn't defend comment was responded to by Speights (sort of) in the post i put up in the other 'game thread', near the end...can find the entire article hear, but the excerpts i read Speights sounds like a little boy and Jordan like a clueless tool

Brian, your diagnosis of the team's ills is the only possible explanation for such a pitiful performance by a pretty talented team. Any decent coach would play Dalembert 30 - 35 minutes every game and keep him involved. The guy isn't stupid and he isn't an asshole, I don't care what people say. And Brand is NOT done. The things he's' saying are right on the mark and everybody knows it. Right now, I'd be happy with McKie taking the reins. He might be turn out to be a flop, but he wouldn't be dicking around like Jordan is, embarassing the franchise and alienating the fans (even you).

Good point about Iguodala and Young not spending a second at their natural positions. Jordan must be trying to get fired, as you said in an earlier post. And he's ruining Lou as well as Jrue. I don't think they'll be permanently damaged because they're confident guys, but he's hurting them by letting them do too much in once case and not enough in the other. The way this team is constituted, and with what he's shown so far, Jrue should be getting 25 - 30 minutes a game. He's a good defender - that alone should be reason enough. And he knows the game and the personnel better than Jordan does.

Remember when Theo said how Speights listens and is coachable? There's no reason he should be playing this cluelessly - any decent coach would work with him and teach him rebounding position, passing out of the post, and how to guard a power forward. His talent is being squandered too. You mentioned that both he & Lou were rushed back. I'm not sure that's true (Lou seemed to want to get back on the court as soon as possible), but if it is, it's inexcusable.

Teams are taking it easy against the Sixers because they know they'll get a win somehow. It's infuriating. Cheeks was way better than this guy - at least he had some heart and showed the team he cared. And he never embarassed players through the press. Dileo looks like a genius in comparison, in spite of his maddening passivity. What in the heck do we do? I can't face another winter of discontent. The city deserves better than this.

Eddie Jordan punished Elton Brand for being right by playing him only 8 minutes in the first half of last night's game. Is that professionalism or what?

Elton Brand has been a class-act, taking his unjustified "benching" very professionally and only speaking out (truthfully) when he felt the team, the press, and fans needed to hear it. It was long overdue...these comments about the lack of defense and passing.

It was only when Elton Brand spoke up about these points of defense and passing that the rest of the press (besides Brian of course...he's written about this for a long time now) caught on and called out the coach for it.

Whose fault is it that everyone on the Sixers is "getting their own" and playing as individuals? The COACH of course! It's the coach's job to create a system where guys are rewarded for their teamwork, hard-work, basketball talents and consistency. Right now, Eddie Jordan's rewarding people for fitting into his "princeton offense" and scoring points, regardless of whether they win or lose. It's so sad to see...

Jordan has been pretty horrendous as a coach but those kind of comments from a guy like Spreights really are worrisome. He seems to be fixated on getting his pts a night that he doesn't play hard on defense & on the glass consistently.

Is a big man who scores 20 pts that valuable if he is a defensive liability with shoddy defensive rebounding, turns over the ball a bit too much, and doesn't do a good job of involving his teammates in the passing game? I say no.

I am willing to be pretty patient with a guy like Spreights but having a bad attitude/work habits set in early in his career aren't a positive sign either if he is one of the key guys the 76ers are supposed to build around.

Speights doesn't play defense or pass because he's not rewarded by Eddie Jordan for passing or for defense. That's why he's always out to "get his" and score as many points as he can regardless of whether his teammates are open, have the hot hand, etc.

Jrue plays defense AND passes really well. But since the coach doesn't give a rat's ass about passing or defense, he gets to sit on the bench. His only way of getting more minutes is to shoot the ball as much as he can, like Speights, and hope that he gets enough points to warrant playing time.

Isn't it sad that the coach is hurting the development of both Speights and Jrue? These two guys are both clearly talented...but because the coach is developing their careers this way and conditioning them to play selfishly and lazily...they may never become team players or winners. Both of their talents will be wasted because of Eddie Jordan.

Fire Eddie Jordan! Before he causes more damage to the younger guys on this team who are still very impressionable at their young age...

The people responsible for the hiring because they didn't see the problem in the first place so they made the wrong hire.

This goes beyond Eddie Jordan - firing Jordan doesn't fix the issues that led to Jordan's hire in the first place. Stefanski has to go too and he has to not be 'forgiven' cause Jordan was such a bad fit. He hired Jordan, and that can not be forgotten or ignored.

That's what I got from it sort of. Saying that guys are learning 'passing and cutting' like college basketball. Somewhat inferring that some of the young bucks don't even know basic fundamentals or principles.

It may be the wrong system for this personnel, but his statements do have some truth to them. Athleticism doesn't always translate into savvy play. And he added the caveat that 'you have to be a thinker at the same time'. Damning comments but truthful.

No. People seem to piss and moan about how the players haven't bought into the 'Princeton' offense (or whatever Jordan runs because it isn't anything that Carrill ran at Princeton or at Sacramento) but just count the number of possessions where this team doesn't even run the most basic of offense plays that a solidly-coached high school team runs.

Way too many possessions wasted with lazy long-range jumpers or where somebody tries to drive to the basket wildly out of control & draw a foul call in the process.

Meant to reply "yes" and to me there are a few things that really show this including:

1. Number of FT attempted PG (really down this year to 22.9 a game from 27.0 in '08-'09 and 26.1 in '07-'08).

2. Number of A/TO (at 1.37 this year down from 1.42 in '08-'09 and 1.43 in '07-'08).

3. Number of A per game (19.7 this year down from 20.1 in '08-'09 and 20.4 in '07-'08).

4. Dramatic rise in 3PA even with with addition of Kapono (17.3 this year up from 13.1 in '08-'09 and 11.6 in '07-'08).

I understand some of this is due to the growing pains of having Lou in his 1st year at PG and Holiday playing but Miller's comments about this team are 'dumb' offensively definitely have some merit. There isn't a single player on this roster right now that I would say is "offensively savvy."

If the 76ers did fire Jordan (worst coach of this team since Doug Moe hands down), who is the interim coach who takes over this job on a half-year basis and what does he hope to accomplish?

Also as important - what coach in their right mind takes over this team with the 'interim' label knowing that he will really take his lumps with a bunch of 'Ls' in the process? Basically it would be Fred Carter redux. At best, you take one for the organization and are rewarded. At worst, your coaching resume likely gets dinged.

Well, two ways to look at it for an interim coach. On one hand, could he possibly do worse than Jordan has? I mean, they've played poorly, but there's a threshold based on the players on the team that you really can't drop below, I'd hope. I'd say anyone brought in will enjoy a bump simply because the players will be glad Jordan's gone and their energy level will increase, not to mention likely improvements in coaching (rotations, system, etc.)

On the other hand, yes, the odds of taking the team to the playoffs are pretty much nil.

Overall, I don't think they'd have a problem getting someone in house to coach the team. This is probably worth a post, actually, writing it right now.

If they did fire in mid-season and DiLeo doesn't want to do it again (for family reasons etc.), get ready for Lynam to run the show. I mean, he has lasted through multiple coaches and staffs. He didn't get canned with Mo, being asked to be DiLeo's sounding board, and he got retained by EJ (was this forced by the FO due to the budgetary constraints?). That seems to be the only way that they don't have to spend any more dough by giving it to Lynam.

Lynam or Ford? Makes sense although it would be fascinating/disruptive to have Ford coach a team with AI still on the roster. Can't imagine there wouldn't be at least one-two flares up between these two.

I guess we'd find out fast then whether we're dealing with a "new" AI or not! But considering how things have changed since then & the "non-disruptive clause" in his contract...who cares! Especially now with LWill healthy & the fact that Jrue needs more minutes anyway!